Hermitage Dutch and Flemish painting. Hermitage. Dutch painting of the 17th-18th centuries. Little Dutchmen (2)

Literally this weekend, an exhibition with the same name will close in the capital’s Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, but the St. Petersburg opening day will be completely different: the collection of Dutch paintings by the American Thomas Kaplan will be supplemented with canvases stored in the largest museum in the Northern capital. “Our masterpieces will either resonate with individual exhibits in the collection or continue them, and the exhibition will receive a new context,” emphasizes Irina Sokolova, the Hermitage’s chief specialist in Dutch art.

The museum itself calls the upcoming project a continuation of the exhibition." Dutch masters from the Hermitage", which with great success took place in Amsterdam. Then more than 60 paintings were brought from St. Petersburg to their historical homeland, but this time the museum, despite the fact that its collection of Dutch paintings is the largest outside the Netherlands, will show no more than a dozen - the Leiden collection itself will come to the fore (it was named after city where Rembrandt was born). St. Petersburg residents will see 80 masterpieces from this collection, and in just 15 years the Kaplan couple managed to collect about 250 items from scratch.

Museum workers call this impossible: works by Rembrandt and his contemporaries - Frans Hals and Johannes Vermeer, Ferdinand Bohl and Govert Flinck - practically do not appear at auctions and have long been divided between large art repositories.

The Hermitage was one of the first to exhibit private collections, and this collection is also private, but it is completely museum level. For me, this exhibition will be a confrontation between black and gold frames - Kaplan has all his paintings in black, and we will exhibit ours in gilded frames. Firstly, it is a symbol of that era, and secondly, it will immediately make it clear where whose collection is,” said Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage.

Another feature of the exhibition will be the captions for each of the paintings - not just labels with names, but real short stories about each of them, prepared by specialists from the St. Petersburg museum. Reproductions will be placed on the same signs Dutch masterpieces from the Hermitage collection, which will not be presented “live” at the exhibition, but have great importance to understand the phenomenon of the Leiden school of art.

And she was also known for being a master of fine painting. These small works, painted on wood or copper, will also be exhibited in the Nicholas Hall of the Winter Palace. In addition to historical compositions, the paintings contain portraits and genre scenes, as well as images of animals. “Fine painting has always been a subject of admiration for collectors,” says Irina Sokolova. “And this virtuosity really makes an impression. Catherine the Great at one time bought dozens of fine paintings.”

Dutch painting, everyday genre

The State Hermitage has one of the world's largest collections of Dutch painting. Its first exhibits appeared on the banks of the Neva in 1716, long before the museum was founded. This year, Osip Solovyov purchased one hundred and twenty-one paintings for Peter I in Holland, and after that Yuri Kologrivov bought another one hundred and seventeen paintings in Brussels and Antwerp. Somewhat later, one hundred and nineteen works were added to this collection, sent to the king by the English merchants Zwan and Elsey. Dutch paintings, along with Flemish ones, predominated here: according to the biographer of Peter I, Yakov Shtelin, the tsar’s favorite artists were Rubens, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Steen, Wouwerman, Bruegel, van der Werf and van Ostade, and his favorite subjects were scenes from life “ Dutch men and women." This commitment to everything Dutch should not be seen as merely a manifestation of the personal taste of “Skipper Peter,” as Peter was called during his stay in Holland. Dutch burgher democracy, which found clear expression in national painting, was especially close to the nature of democratic transformations in Russia at that time in the field of culture and life. But, of course, not only artistic interest was aroused in the Russian viewer by the paintings of Dutch painters. The works of such masters as the Tsar’s favorite marine painter, Adam Silo, primarily satisfied the educational interest of the young Russian nation, entering the sea. Peter's collection of the Dutch already included such masterpieces as Rembrandt's "David and Jonathan" - the first work of the brilliant painter to come to Russia.

In the second half of the 18th century, many significant works of Dutch painting migrated to St. Petersburg. As part of the collection of G. Brühl, acquired in Dresden (in 1769), the Hermitage received four portraits by Rembrandt, four landscapes by J. Ruisdael, paintings by G. Terborch, F. Miris, A. van Ostade, A. Wouwerman and others. The Crozat collection in Paris, which arrived in 1772, brought to the museum such Rembrandt masterpieces as Danaë and The Holy Family.

The Hermitage collection of the Dutch was further enriched by the collections of Baudouin (Paris), Walpole (England) and the first wife of Napoleon I, Empress Josephine, acquired for the Hermitage in late XVIII- early 19th century. The Hermitage was then able to include in its exhibition “The Sacrifice of Abraham”, “The Descent from the Cross” and a dozen other canvases by Rembrandt, works by the fashionable XVIII century G. Doe, three best paintings P. Potter (among them the master’s masterpiece - “The Farm”), “A Glass of Lemonade” by G. Terborch, “Breakfast” by G. Metsu, two amazingly delicately executed floral still lifes by J. van Huysum and many other equally significant works.

An entertaining plot, small size and relatively low prices made Dutch paintings accessible to a large circle of Russian collectors. They were acquired not only by members of the reigning house and the highest St. Petersburg nobility, but also by representatives of more democratic circles of the population. These collections will subsequently become the main source of replenishment of the Hermitage collection. Thus, in 1915, the museum received a huge collection of “little Dutchmen” acquired back in 1910 by the famous Russian scientist and traveler P. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, who collected seven hundred and nineteen paintings by three hundred and forty authors. With this collection, one hundred and ninety new names appeared in the museum’s catalogue. Thus, if earlier the Dutch collection of the Hermitage stood out among other museums in the world in terms of the number of masterpieces, now it has taken one of the first places in the number of names represented in it, including the rarest ones.

After the Great October Revolution socialist revolution on the basis of this meeting, a hitherto unprecedented special reserve fund was created for the study Dutch art. Significantly grown in the first years Soviet power When the collections of the nobility who fled abroad were nationalized, this fund is replenished today through the Hermitage Purchasing Commission. Thus, only in recent years have the museum received outstanding works A. Bloemaert, J. Both, A. van Ostade, K. Berchem and other less prominent, but interesting for the history of the Dutch school of masters.

The best works of this collection are exhibited in seven large halls of the New Hermitage (248-254) and the long Petrovskaya Gallery (halls 255-257).

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Someone calculated that it would take eight years to walk around the entire Hermitage, devoting only a minute to examining each exhibit. So, when going for new aesthetic impressions to one of the main museums of the country, you need to stock up on enough time and the appropriate mood.

Main Museum The Hermitage is a collection of five buildings built in different time by different architects for different purposes, and connected sequentially to each other, but visually different in color facades (this can be seen especially well from the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island): Winter Palace‒ the creation of Bartalameo Rastrelli, created by order of Empress Elizabeth, then comes the Small Hermitage, then ‒ enfilades of halls of the Old Hermitage (former living quarters of the imperial family), smoothly flowing into the building of the New Hermitage (designed by the European “museum” architect Leo von Klenze to accommodate the increasing huge collection rate) and Hermitage Theater.

Must-see masterpieces are marked on the museum plan with arrows and pictures - in principle, this is the traditional route for most guides and tourists.

Below is the optimal list of Hermitage must-sees.

The classic excursion route through the main Hermitage museum begins with the Jordan Staircase, or, as it is commonly called, the Ambassadorial Staircase (it was along it that noble guests of emperors and envoys of foreign powers passed to the palace). After the white and gold marble staircase, the road bifurcates: a suite of state rooms goes forward and into the distance, and to the left is the Field Marshal's Hall. The main halls, stretching along the Neva, look somewhat deserted and today are used to host temporary exhibitions. On the left begins the second suite of state halls, leading up to the Throne Room, which, in contrast to the main staircase, looks rather modest.

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Part of the first floor, which can be reached by going down the October Staircase (straight from the Impressionists), is dedicated to the art of the ancient inhabitants of Asia - the Scythians. In room number 26, fairly well-preserved items made of organic material are presented, found during excavations of the royal necropolis in the Altai Mountains, the so-called fifth Pazyryk mound. The culture of Pazyryk dates back to the VI-III centuries. BC e. - the era of the early Iron Age. All the things found were preserved in excellent condition, thanks to the special climatic conditions - an ice lens formed around the mound, resulting in a kind of “natural refrigerator” in which things can be stored for a very long period. Archaeologists discovered a burial chamber, which was a wooden frame four meters high, inside which were placed the mummified bodies of a man and a woman, as well as a horse burial located outside the frame. Items found during excavations indicate the high social status of the buried. In ancient times, the mound was robbed, but the horse burial remained untouched. The cart was found disassembled, presumably drawn by four horses. A special pride of the collection is a perfectly preserved felt carpet depicting a fantastic flower, a man on horseback and a larger woman, apparently a deity. Archaeologists have not come to a consensus as to when and why this carpet was made; detailed studies have shown that it was subsequently added, perhaps specifically for burial. Other interesting exhibits located in the showcase opposite are felt figurines of swans stuffed with reindeer fur. The swans have alien black wings, presumably taken from vultures (funeral birds). Thus, the ancients endowed the swan with the property of transcendence, turning it into an inhabitant of all three levels of the universe: heavenly, earthly and aquatic. A total of four felt figurines of birds were found, which suggests that the swans were related to the cart in which they were to be taken to afterworld souls of the dead (during excavations, swans were found between the cart and the carpet). “Imported finds” were also discovered in the mound, for example, horse saddlecloths trimmed with Iranian woolen fabric and fabric from China, which suggests contacts between the Scythian population Gorny Altai with the cultures of Central Asia and the Ancient East already in the VI-III centuries. BC e.

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Main museum complex, Winter Palace, II floor, halls 151, 153

If you are a little tired of the variety of paintings and sculptures, you can distract yourself a little by switching to a small hall French art XV-XVII centuries, where ceramics by Saint-Porcher and Bernard Palissy are presented. There are only about 70 Saint-Porcher pieces in the entire world, and in the Hermitage you can see as many as four examples. The Saint-Porcher technique (so named after its supposed place of origin) can be schematically described as follows: ordinary clay was placed in molds, and then an ornament was squeezed out using metal matrices on the molds (as many ornaments as there are matrices), then the recesses were filled with clay of a contrasting color, the product was covered with a transparent glaze and burned in the oven. After firing, decorative painting was added. As you can see, as a result of such an intricate and labor-intensive process, an extremely elegant and fragile thing was obtained. In the showcase opposite, there is another type of ceramic - circle ceramics by Bernard Palissy, the most famous ceramist of the 16th century. Colorful, unusual, so-called “rural clays” - dishes depicting the inhabitants of the water element - immediately catch your eye. The technique for making these dishes still remains a mystery, but art historians believe that they were made using casts from prints. It was as if a stuffed sea reptile was coated with fat, and a piece of clay was placed on top and burned. A stuffed animal was pulled out of the baked clay and an impression was taken. There is an opinion that the reptiles, when clay was placed on them, were only immobilized by ether, but were by no means dead. Casts were made from the resulting impression, which were attached to the dishes; everything was painted with colored glaze, then covered with transparent glaze and fired. Bernard Palissy's tableware was so popular that he had a countless number of followers and imitators.

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Main museum complex, Winter Palace, 2nd floor, halls 272‒292

If you walk along the enfilade of state rooms along the Neva, you will find yourself in the spare half of rooms with residential interiors - here there are strictly classical interiors, and living rooms decorated in the style of historicism, and rockish-intricate furniture, and Art Deco furniture, and Gothic wooden two-tier library of Nicholas II with ancient volumes, easily immersing you in the atmosphere of the Middle Ages.

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Main museum complex, Winter Palace, 2nd floor, halls 187–176

Few people get to the third floor, to the department of Eastern countries. If you go a little further from the world of Matisse-Picasso-Derain, overcoming the temptation to go down wooden stairs, then you will be taken to the Oriental countries section. In several exhibition halls " Far East and Central Asia" contains partially lost, partially restored with the help of computer technology wall frescoes, which are hundreds of years old. They represent the incredibly refined art of painting cave and above-ground Buddhist temples from the Karashar, Turfan and Kuchar oases, located along the route of the Great Silk Road. The frescoes provide unique evidence of the unity of the Buddhist world in India, Central Asia and China in the pre-Mongol period. Several years ago, part of the frescoes from the collection was transported to the restoration and storage center " Old village", where they are now exhibited.

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Main museum complex, Winter Palace, III floor, halls 359‒367, exhibition “Culture and Art of Central Asia”

Works by the Impressionists (Monet, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Pizarro) are presented on the third floor of the Winter Palace. One of the true pearls of the collection is Claude Monet’s painting “Lady in the Garden of Sainte-Adresse” (Claude Monet, Femme au jardin, 1867). Based on the girl’s outfit, you can definitely determine the year the picture was painted - that’s when similar dresses came into fashion. And it was this work that graced the cover of the catalog for an exhibition of Monet’s works from around the world, which took place several years ago in Paris at the Grand Palais. The collection is also replete with works by post-impressionists Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and other French artists of the early 20th century: Matisse, Derain, Picasso, Marche, Vallotton. How did this wealth end up in the museum's collection? All the paintings were previously in the collections of Russian merchants Morozov and Shchukin, who bought works in Paris French painters, thereby saving them from starvation. After the revolution, the paintings were nationalized by the Soviet state and placed in the Moscow Museum of the New Western art. In those years, Alfred Barr, the founder of the New York Museum, was visiting Moscow. contemporary art, for whom the Shchukin and Morozov collections served as the prototype for his future brainchild. After the war, the museum was disbanded due to its anti-national and formalistic content, and the collection was divided between two largest museums Russia - Pushkinsky in Moscow and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The then director of the Hermitage, Joseph Orbeli, who was not afraid to take responsibility and take away the most radical works of Kandinsky, Matisse and Picasso, deserves special gratitude. The second part of the Morozov-Schukin collection can be admired today in the Gallery of Art of Europe and America of the 19th-20th centuries. Moscow Pushkin Museum, which is on Volkhonka.

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Main museum complex, Winter Palace, III floor, halls 316‒350

Just as all roads go to Rome, so all roads through the Hermitage go through the Pavilion Hall with the famous clock, familiar to everyone from the screensaver of the Kultura TV channel. The peacock of wondrous beauty was made by the then fashionable English master James Cox, purchased by Prince Grigory Potemkin-Tavrichesky as a gift to Catherine the Great, delivered to St. Petersburg disassembled and assembled on the spot by Ivan Kulibin. To understand where the clock is located, you need to go to the fence and look at the peacock’s feet - there is a small mushroom in the center, and it is in its cap that the clock is located. The mechanism is in working order, once a week (on Wednesdays) the watchmaker enters the glass cage, and the peacock turns and opens its tail, the rooster crows, and the owl in the cage spins on its axis. The pavilion hall is located in the Small Hermitage, and it overlooks Catherine’s Hanging Garden - once there was real garden with bushes, trees and even animals, partially covered by a glass roof. The Small Hermitage itself was built by order of Catherine II for lunches and evenings in an intimate circle of friends - “hermitages”, where even servants were not allowed. The design of the Pavilion Hall dates back to a later, post-Catherine period and is made in an eclectic style: marble, crystal, gold, mosaic. In the hall you can find many more extremely interesting exhibits - these are elegant tables placed here and there around the hall, inlaid with enamel and semi-precious stones (mother of pearl, garnet, onyx, lapis lazuli), and Bakhchisarai fountains of tears, located symmetrically opposite each other on both walls. According to legend, the Crimean Khan Girey, bitterly mourning the death of his beloved concubine Dilyara, ordered the craftsmen to build fountains in memory of his grief - drop by drop, water falls from one shell to another, like tears.

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Main museum complex, Small Hermitage, II floor, room 204

The usual path from the Throne Room lies straight to the clock with a peacock, which is immediately along the gallery with the applied arts of the Middle Ages to the left. But if you turn right and walk a little, you can see a very interesting collection Dutch painting XVI-XVII centuries For example, here is an altar image by Jean Bellhambe dedicated to the Annunciation. Once in the possession of the church, the triptych is valuable because it reached in full force to the present day. In the center of the triptych, next to the Archangel Gabriel, who brought the good news to Mary, the donor (customer of the painting) is depicted, which for Dutch painting of the 16th century. was a very bold step. The central part is built as if in perspective: the foreground is occupied by the scene of the Annunciation, and in the background the Virgin Mary is already busy with her everyday affairs - sewing diapers in anticipation of the birth of a baby. It is also worth paying attention to two group portraits of the corporation (guild) of the Amsterdam shooters by Dirk Jacobs, which in itself is a rarity for any museum collection of paintings located outside the Netherlands. Group portraits are a special pictorial genre, characteristic specifically for this country. Such paintings were painted at the request of associations (for example, shooters, doctors, trustees of charitable institutions), and, as a rule, remained in the country and were not exported beyond its borders. Not long ago, the Hermitage hosted an exhibition of group portraits brought from the Amsterdam Museum, including two paintings from the Hermitage collection.

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Main museum complex, Small Hermitage, II floor, room 262

Currently, there are 14 surviving works in the world by the famous Renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci. In the Hermitage there are two paintings by his indisputable authorship - “ Madonna Benoit" and "Madonna Litta". And this is a huge wealth! An outstanding artist, humanist, inventor, architect, scientist, writer, in a word, a genius - Leonardo da Vinci is the cornerstone of all art of the European Renaissance. It was he who started the tradition oil painting(before this, more and more tempera was used - a mixture of natural color pigments and egg yolk), he also gave birth to the triangular composition of the painting, into which the Madonna and Child and the saints and angels surrounding them were built. Also be sure to pay attention to the six doors of this hall, inlaid with gilded metal parts and tortoiseshell.

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Main museum complex, Great (Old) Hermitage, II floor, room 214

The main staircase of the New Hermitage rises from the historical entrance to the museum from Millionnaya Street, and its porch is decorated with ten Atlases made of gray Serdobol granite. Atlases were made under the direction of the Russian sculpture Terebenev, hence the second name of the staircase. Once upon a time, the route of the first visitors to the museum began from this porch (until the mid-twenties of the last century). According to tradition, for good luck and to return, you need to rub the heel of any of the Atlases.

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Main museum complex, New Hermitage

You won’t be able to pass by this hall; “The Prodigal Son” is one of the last and most famous paintings Rembrandt - is indicated on all plans and guidebooks, and in front of him, just like in front of the Parisian La Gioconda, whole crowds always gather. The picture glares, and you can only get a good look at it with your head raised, or a little from afar - from the landing of the Soviet Staircase (named so not in honor of the country of the Soviets, but in honor State Council, who was gathering nearby, in the hall on the first floor). The Hermitage has the second largest collection of Rembrandt paintings, rivaled only by the Rembrandt Museum in Amsterdam. Here is the infamous “Danae” (be sure to compare it with Titian’s “Danae” - two great masters interpret the same plot) - in the eighties, a museum visitor splashed sulfuric acid on the canvas and stabbed it twice. The painting was carefully restored in the Hermitage workshops over the course of 12 years. There is also the beautifully mystical “Flora,” which supposedly depicts the artist’s wife, Saskia, in the role of the goddess of fertility, as well as the less popular, therefore almost intimate painting, “David’s Farewell to Jonathan.” It depicts the farewell of the young commander David and his true friend Jonathan - the son of the envious King Saul. The men say goodbye at the Azel stone, which translated means “separation.” The subject is taken from the Old Testament, and before Rembrandt there was no tradition of iconographic depiction of scenes from the Old Testament. The painting, filled with subtle, light sadness, was painted after the death of Rembrandt’s beloved wife and reflects his farewell to Saskia.

(249) is so named because of the unusual coffered ceiling covered with paintings in pastel colors. The hall is filled with genre scenes by Dutch painters of the 17th century: Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Salomon Ruisdael and others.

Painting by Jan Brueghel in the Hermitage

The next room (248) also has beautiful decor. Faux marble columns support a ceiling decorated with magnificent paintings. The octagonal chandelier resembles miniature organ pipes. Among the many paintings are several small canvases by Jan Brueghel, son of the great Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Jan Brueghel loved to paint landscapes and genre scenes.

Paintings by Rubens and Van Dyck in the Hermitage

Rubens' paintings from his heyday (1610–1620) fill room 247. There is the Descent from the Cross, the famous altarpiece painted for the Capuchin monastery at Lira near Antwerp. In Rembrandt's version of this plot, reality dominated human suffering and the use of light, and Rubens emphasizes the contrast between the clothes of the people and the deathly pale body of the Savior.
"Bacchus" was written in Last year artist's life. The master abandoned the traditional image of the young Bacchus, a participant in revels, and depicted this ancient Roman god as a cheerful, lazy fat man covered with folds of fat. When Rubens had many orders, he entrusted some of the work to his students, in particular Van Dyck. This young artist introduced a completely secular interpretation of the biblical theme into the painting “The Feast of Simon the Pharisee.” Van Dyck later became the court painter of the English king Charles I and was knighted by him. At the English court, Van Dyck painted several portraits that are considered the best: the portrait of Thomas Wharton, King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. All these paintings are in room 246. There are also earlier works, including a wonderful self-portrait of the artist.

If you go through room 248, you will find yourself in the corridor (258), where you will see Flemish landscapes and winter scenes. Two enfilades extend from this corridor, towering over the Hanging Garden: the Petrovskaya Gallery (255–257) and the Romanovskaya Gallery (261–263). The Petrovskaya Gallery displays Dutch paintings from the 17th century, and the Romanovskaya Gallery displays examples of medieval and early Flemish painting. Look at the painting “Saint Luke Painting the Madonna” by Rogier van der Weyden. Two halves of this work were purchased Hermitage separately. And only then did experts realize that these were parts of the same composition. Other pearls of the collection are Robert Campin's diptych "Trinity" and "Madonna and Child", "The Healing of the Blind Man" by Lucas van Leyden, as well as a magnificent group portrait of the Amsterdam Riflemen Corporation by Dirk Jacobs.

Quarenghi's office in the Hermitage

At the end of the Petrovskaya Gallery there is a small office of Quarenghi (205). The small office still bears the name of the architect who created it in 1806. A. I. Stackenschneider, during the complete reconstruction of the pavilion in 1850–1858, made significant changes to the design of the cabinet. The strict and clear harmony of the office gave way to more elegant decoration techniques. This is the only room in which the original original decoration of the 18th century has been preserved. The walls of the hall are bright red, the ceilings are white and gold, and the columns are made of yellow artificial marble.

(1842 - 1851, architects Leo von Klenze, V. P. Stasov, N. E. Efimov)
* Hermitage Theater (1783 - 1787, architect G. Quarenghi)

View from the Neva of the complex of buildings of the State Hermitage: from left to right the Hermitage Theater - the Bolshoi (Old) Hermitage - the Small Hermitage - the Winter Palace; (The New Hermitage is located behind the Bolshoi)

Hall of Flanders Art

In this hall of the Imperial New Hermitage paintings of the Russian school were placed. Nowadays the exhibition introduces works of Flemish artists XVII V. Among those stored in State Hermitage ten works by Jacob Jordaens, one of the most noteworthy best options paintings "Feast of the Bean King", as well as "Allegorical Family Portrait" and "Portrait of an Old Man". The hall also displays paintings by masters of animal painting and still life: “shops” by Frans Snyders, “hunts” by Paul de Vos, still lifes by Jan Veit.

Jacob Jordaens.Self-portrait with parents, brothers and sisters

Jacob Jordaens. The Bean King

Jacob Jordaens. Allegorical family portrait

Frans Snyders - Fruit stand

Frans Snyders - Vegetable shop

Ian Faith - Hare, fruit and parrot

Jan Faith - Still life with flowers, fruit and parrot

Eduard Petrovich Gau - Types of halls of the New Hermitage. Flemish School Hall

Rubens Hall.

According to the project of Leo von Klenze, this hall of the New Hermitage was given over to the exhibition of Dutch and Flemish painting. Nowadays the works of the great Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).
The collection of his works, including 22 paintings and 19 sketches, covers all periods of the artist’s work.
The masterpieces of the collection include “Perseus and Andromeda”, “Bacchus”, “Portrait of the Infanta Isabella’s Chambermaid”. Among the most famous paintings- “The Union of Earth and Water”, “The Descent from the Cross”, “Carriers of Stones”.

Rubens, Peter Paul - The love of a Roman woman.

Perseus and Andromeda - 1621

Bacchus - 1638 - 1640

Portrait of the Infanta Isabella's maid

Union of Earth and Water

Descent from the Cross

Carriers of stones.

Rembrandt Hall

According to the project of Leo von Klenze, this hall of the New Hermitage was allocated to the French and Flemish schools of painting. This explains the inclusion of medallions with portraits in the decorative decoration of the vault outstanding artists these countries. The hall contains unique collection paintings by Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn (1606-1669). The Hermitage collection of Rembrandt, which includes 23 works, presents both early and late works by the master. Among them are “Flora”, “The Descent from the Cross”, “The Sacrifice of Abraham”, “Danae”, “David’s Farewell to Jonathan”, “ Holy Family", "Portrait of an Old Man in Red", "Return of the Prodigal Son".

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - Portrait of Barthier Martens Domer.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - The Holy Family.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - Flora.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - Descent from the Cross

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - Sacrifice of Abraham

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - Danae

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn - Return of the Prodigal Son

Eduard Petrovich Gau - Types of halls of the New Hermitage. Hall of the Dutch and Flemish Schools

Tent hall

The tented hall, which got its name because of the unique gable roof, is one of the largest in the New Hermitage. Antique motifs are used in the decorative painting of the interior; sculptural acroteries crown the window pediments. Today, as in the 19th century, the hall houses paintings from the Dutch and Flemish schools. The Hermitage has one of the best collections of paintings from these schools in the world, numbering more than 1000 canvases. In the exhibition you can see works of such famous artists 17th century, like Jacob Ruisdael, Pieter Claes, Willem Kalf and Willem Heda, paintings everyday genre Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch, as well as two portraits created by Frans Hals.

Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck - Portrait of a Woman

Frans Hals - Portrait of a young man with a glove in his hand.

Frans Hals - Portrait of a man.

Jacob Isaacs van Ruisdael - Swamp

Jacob Isaacs van Ruisdael - Waterfall in Norway

Pieter Claes - Breakfast with ham

Vilem Claes Heda - Breakfast with crab

Jan Steen - Marriage contract

Pieter de Hooch - The Maid and the Soldier.

Pieter de Hooch - Mistress and Maid

Luigi Premazzi. Types of halls of the New Hermitage. Hall of the Dutch and Flemish Schools 1858

Russian school hall

"Vesuvius opened - smoke poured out in a cloud - flames
Widely developed as a battle flag.
The earth is agitated - from the shaky columns
Idols fall! A people driven by fear
Under the stone rain, under the inflamed ashes,
Crowds of young and old are running out of the city."

These inspired lines by A.S. dedicated to Pushkin famous painting Karl Bryullova "The Last Day of Pompeii". In 1834, the painting arrived in St. Petersburg and was exhibited at the Academy of Arts, causing great delight among the public. In 1851 monumental works Bryullova ("The Last Day of Pompeii") and Bruni ("The Copper Serpent") entered the Hermitage "to strengthen the Russian gallery." The Russian academic school was also represented in the hall by works by Kiprensky ("Portrait of Bertel Thorvaldsen"), Reutern ("Abraham Sacrifice Isaac"), A.A. Ivanov (“The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene”) and A.I. Ivanov (“The feat of a young Kiev citizen during the siege of Kyiv by the Pechenegs in 968”).

K. Bryullov - The last day of Pompeii

Bruni - Copper Serpent

Kiprensky Orest Adamovich (1782-1836) - Portrait of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. 1831

Reitern - Abraham sacrifices Isaac

A.A. Ivanov - The Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene

The antechamber, or front "hallway", was originally intended for a cycle of monumental paintings dedicated to history Russian state. This idea is reminiscent of the ceiling paintings depicting a double-headed eagle and allegorical figures symbolizing Russian cities. Then it was decided to dedicate the painting of the walls of the hall to the history of Russian art, which was logically connected with the theme of the History Gallery ancient painting.
Bas-relief portraits of Russian artists, sculptors and architects were placed in the frieze of the hall. At the opening of the museum there were paintings by Russians in the hall artists of the 19th century in.: "Vicinities of Bakhchisarai" A.E. Martynov, “Peasant boy putting on bast shoes” by A.G. Venetsianova, “Imatra Waterfall in Finland” F.M. Matveeva, “The Ninth Wave” by I.K. Aivazovsky, “View of the Grand Canal in Venice” by A.N. Mordvinova, “Interior view of the Church on Calvary” M.N. Vorobyova.

E.P. Gau. Types of halls of the New Hermitage. Russian school hall

Peasant boy putting on bast shoes A.G. Venetsianov

Imatra Falls in Finland F.M. Matveev

The Ninth Wave - Aivazovsky Ivan Konstantinovich.

View of the Grand Canal in Venice A.N. Mordvinov

M. Vorobyov, Interior view of the Church of Calvary in Jerusalem, 1824

Van Dyck Hall

At the time of the opening of the museum, the entrance hall of the New Hermitage was given over to paintings by Russian artists of the 19th century. The interior decor includes bas-relief portraits of Russian artists, sculptors and architects. Today the exhibition presents works by Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), the famous Flemish artist, whose collection of paintings in the State Hermitage includes 24 works. The collection includes all types of portraits - a genre thanks to which the master received world recognition: chamber, intimate, ceremonial, custom. "Portrait of a Man" and "Self-Portrait" are among the museum's masterpieces.

E.P. Gau. Types of halls of the New Hermitage. Russian school hall

Anthony Van Dyck - Self-Portrait

Anthony Van Dyck - Portrait of Sir Thomas Chaloner

Anthony Van Dyck - Family Portrait.

Anthony Van Dyck - Portrait of a young woman with a child

Anthony Van Dyck - Portrait of Elizabeth and Philadelphia Wharton

Anthony Van Dyck - Portrait of Nicholas Rocox

Anthony Van Dyck - Portrait of William Laud

Anthony Van Dyck - Apostle Peter

Van Dyck, Anthony - Rest on the Flight to Egypt

English painting

The Hermitage collection of English painting from the 16th to 19th centuries is a unique collection of its kind, especially considering the fact that works by British artists are extremely rare in museums in continental Europe. The collection is small - about 450 paintings, but very interesting.

Gainsborough, Thomas - Portrait of a Lady in Blue

Neller, Godfrey - Portrait of Grinling Gibbons

Kneller, Godfrey - Portrait of John Locke

Dobson, William - Portrait of Abraham van der Dort

Romney, George - Portrait of Mrs. H. Grier

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Reynolds, Joshua - Cupid Unties the Girdle of Venus

West, Benjamin - Portrait of George, Prince of Wales and Prince Frederick, later Duke of York

West, Benjamin - Venus consoles Cupid stung by a bee

Reynolds, Joshua - Temperance of Scipio Africanus

Lawrence, Thomas - Portrait of S. R. Vorontsov

Wootton, John - Dogs and Magpies

French painting

The Hermitage has a wonderful collection of paintings from the 15th to 18th centuries. It includes a few but characteristic works XV-XVI centuries, among which stand out works portrait genre, including works by Pierre Dumoustier. The painting of France in the 17th century is revealed in its entirety, allowing us to trace the formation and establishment of the main directions of the French school of this period. Various destinations in art XVII centuries represent works of leading masters.